Episode 307. Francisco Araiza in Song

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In the first year of Countermelody I posted a tribute to to the Mexican tenor Francisco Araiza on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Four years later, that great artist is still with us, and, today, in continuation of my miniseries on Great Mexican Singers, I present a refurbished and expanded bonus episode that I first published three years ago featuring Araiza in art song. A number of live performances are interspersed amongst excerpts from two rare LPs from the mid-1980s: one, accompanied by Irwin Gage, of some rare Schubert Lieder; and the other, accompanied by Jean Lemaire, of French, Spanish, and Mexican art songs. These performances reveal a voice of great beauty supported by a solid technique which provides for seamless legato singing. Add to this near-perfect German diction and an often-probing textual acuity as well as profound musicality and one has all the ingredients that make up an exceptional intepreter of art song. Highlights include a live recording with Carlo Maria Giulini of an excerpt from Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde; the extended Schubert Lied “Viola;” and three Mexican art songs by Blas Galindo and Manuel Ponce; as well as two bracing excerpts from Araiza’s 1986 album of popular Mexican song.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Consuelo Velázquez: Bésame mucho. Daniel García Blanco, Sinfonico de Mariachi, Aguilas de America, Musicos del S.U.T.M. [1986]

Richard Strauss, Adolf Friedrich von Schalk: Ständchen, Op. 17/2. Irwin Gage [live Salzburg 11 August 1987]

Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Müller: Tränenregen (Die schöne Müllerin, D.795/10). Irwin Gage [1985]

Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Müller: Ungeduld (Die schöne Müllerin, D.795/7). Irwin Gage [live Concertgebouw 11.II.86]

Robert Schumann, Heinrich Heine: Aus alten Märchen winkt es (Dichterliebe, Op. 48/15). Jean Lemaire [1993]

Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Müller: Die Nebensonnen (Winterreise, D.911/23). Jean Lemaire [1993]

Richard Strauss, Otto Julius Bierbaum: Freundliche Vision, Op. 48/1. Roberto Abbado, München Rundfunkorchester [live Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1994]